Geography

Located in western Europe, Belgium has about 40
mi of seacoast on the North Sea, at the Strait of Dover, and is
approximately the size of Maryland. The Meuse and the Schelde, Belgium's
principal rivers, are important commercial arteries.

Government

Parliamentary democracy under a constitutional
monarch. Under the 1994 constitution, autonomy was granted to the Walloon
region (Wallonia), the Flemish region (Flanders), and the bilingual
Brussels-Capital region; autonomy was also guaranteed for the Flemish-,
French-, and German-speaking “communities.” The central
government retains responsibility for foreign policy, defense, taxation,
and social security.

History

Belgium occupies part of the Roman province of
Belgica, named after the Belgae, a people of ancient Gaul. The area was
conquered by Julius Caesar in 57–50
B.C.
,
then was overrun by the Franks in the 5th century
A.D
. It was part of Charlemagne's empire in the 8th
century, then in the next century was absorbed into Lotharingia and later
into the duchy of Lower Lorraine. In the 12th century, Belgium was
partitioned into the duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg, the bishopric of
Liège, and the domain of the count of Hainaut, which included
Flanders. In the 15th century, most of the Low Countries (currently the
Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) passed to the duchy of Burgundy and
were subsequently inherited by Emperor Charles V. When the latter
abdicated in 1555, the territories went to his son Philippe II, king of
Spain. While the northern part, now the Netherlands, gained its
independence in the following decades, the southern part remained under
Spanish control until 1713, when it was transferred to Austria. During the
wars that followed the French Revolution, Belgium was occupied and later
annexed to France. But with the downfall of Napoléon, the Congress
of Vienna in 1815 reunited the Low Countries under the rule of the king of
Holland. In 1830, Belgium rebelled against Dutch rule and declared
independence, which was approved by Europe at the London Conference of
1830–1831.

Germany's invasion of Belgium in 1914 set off
World War I. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) gave the areas of Eupen,
Malmédy, and Moresnet to Belgium. Leopold III succeeded Albert,
king during World War I, in 1934. In World War II, Belgium was overwhelmed
by Nazi Germany, and Leopold III was held prisoner. When he returned at
the government’s invitation in 1950 after a narrowly favorable
referendum, riots broke out in several cities. He abdicated on July 16,
1951, and his son, Baudouin, became king. Because of growing opposition to
Belgian rule in its African colonies, Belgium granted independence to the
Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1960 and to Ruanda-Urundi
(now the nations of Rwanda and Burundi) in 1962.

Since 1958, when the European Economic Community
was born, Brussels, the country’s capital, has gradually established
itself as the de facto capital of what has now become the European Union
(EU), a role that became official in Dec. 2000 when the European Council
of heads of government decided to hold all its regular meetings in
Brussels. As a result, the city has become home not only to nearly 20,000
European civil servants, but to an even more numerous community of
lobbyists, lawyers, and other professionals drawn to the EU’s main
decision center.

Growing divisions between Flemings and Walloons,
and devolution along linguistic lines, culminated in the revised
constitution of 1994, which turned Belgium into a federal state with
significant autonomy for its three regions and its three language
“communities.”